Alliances Pt 4
by Shayne1
Summary: Merrill and Luke reach the Rock, and Han, Leia and Chewie are not far behind.


ALLIANCES PT 4 by Shayne  
  
It was a big pitted lump of stone little different from the asteroids around it, at least on first sight. As the Solar Song slipped through the slowly swirling rocks of the asteroid field it became clear that this was no mere navigation hazard. There was a large dark patch in the rock face nearest them and navigation lights flashed rhythmically around its near-spherical bulk.   
  
A cold male voice came through the speakers of the Song as Merril brought the ship into clear space.   
  
"Rock Control to unidentified craft. You are entering private space. Identify and state your business. Be warned - you are targeted by heavy defense weaponry."  
  
Merril flicked on the communicator. "This is Merril Highstar commanding freighter Solar Song. I'm here to do some business. Transmitting my Landing Permit now."  
  
"Wait. " There was static on the line for a few moments before the operator returned. "Your permit has expired, Highstar. Renewal will cost you a thousand Rock credits or accepted equivalent, payable on landing."  
  
Merril covered the mic and swore. "Bloody robbers. I was hoping they wouldn't that." He uncovered the mic. "Very well, Control, I'll pay. Let me in."  
  
"Make it your first order of business, Highstar, or we'll impound your ship and sell everything and everyone aboard it. Security Gates will open immediately." The voice clicked off.  
  
"Not a very friendly greeting," Luke said as he watched Merril maneuver the freighter towards the asteroid.  
  
"Warm and cozy is not what the Rock is about."   
  
The navigation lights surrounding the entrance began blinking red and white and Luke saw the dark patch grow light as a huge set of doors swung open. Merril tilted the ship towards the entry way and in a moment they were inside the asteroid, traveling slowly down a brightly lit tunnel. The sensors showed the gate closing behind them.  
  
"It's an airlock as well as a security gate. They never bothered to install a magnetic field, suppose they thought it wasn't necessary." Merril's tension at navigating the tunnel showed in the slight unsteadiness of his voice. "Once you are in here, you get out only if they want you to."  
  
As they approached the end of the tunnel Luke saw another great metal gate opening before them. In a moment they had passed out and Merril brought the landing thrusters online and swung the Song around the confines of a huge cavern. . There was little time to observe it then; Luke watched Merril turn the ship and bring it. to a gentle landing in one of the empty landing bays.   
  
"I see you like doing it manually too," he said quietly, as Merril flicked off the engines and set the power systems to standby.  
  
"Like Solo you mean? Yes, I don't trust computers, at least not enough to handle landing. For emergencies its fine, but flying is something I like to control." When the Song's engines were quiet and the power off he sat back and studied Luke in silence for a few moments before speaking again.  
  
"I guess I better tell you a few facts about this place. I didn't want to come here never do, but I didn't have much choice. Paying the fee, the docking and refueling charges is going to just about empty my pockets. Anyhow, the things is to keep cool, mind your own business and don't take anything on surface value. I do what needs doing, and then we go." He set his security systems on and stood. "Let's go."  
  
  
  
There was something coolly alien about the big cave. Sounds echoed around the silver gray walls and the air was cool and tainted with strange odors, not unpleasant but carrying the faint stale quality of air recycled many times, breathed through many lungs.   
  
Luke stood at the edge of the landing ledge and looked across the width of the cave, awed and impressed by the technical wonder of it. The far wall, with its sealed entry tunnel, was almost a kilometer away. Above them, the stone roof was dimly visible, and the lighting couldn't entirely cast of the shadowing caused by the uneven rock face. Below him were two more levels of ship bays, with the floor of the cavern almost half a kilometer below where he stood. Two sides of the cave were lined by the three levels of landing bay ledges cut out from the solid rock, like some sort of nesting place for big metal birds. Off to the left the walkways that ringed the landing ledges led to two elevators -one large for freight that was brought to it from the ledges by conveyor, the other smaller, for personal conveyance.   
  
Sound was changed by the nature of the cave, distant sounds reverberated, lost their original tenor and took on an unnatural metallic vibration. When Highstar spoke from behind him Luke almost jumped - Merril's voice seemed hashed, yet warm in the unliving, deathless atmosphere of the Rock's heart.   
  
"Enjoying the view?"   
  
Luke turned, unsmiling. "No. I don't like this place. Its feels bad. Cold."  
  
Merril nodded slowly, equally serious, his fingers linked into his blaster belt. "Yeah, it gives me the creeps too, I can never figure out how people could live their whole lives here, never feel open air or grass beneath their feet or rain on their skin. I guess some people can adapt to anything." As if recognizing his own surprising rhetoric and Luke's appreciation of it, Merril dropped his personal shield back down immediately. "And because it is a bad place, as you put it, neither of us can afford to be the least bit naive about survival. The Plessy rule here, and if we even bend one of their rules. ..well, the outcome will not be pleasant. It's rumored that people disappear here from time to time to incubate the Plessy young. I'd rather not find out the truth of the rumor."  
He turned and began walking towards the distant elevator, and Luke walked beside him.   
  
"So tell me about the Plessy."  
  
The full lips twisted into an unpleasant smile. "Have you ever met an Arachniad?"  
  
"No!" Luke's eyes brightened with interest. "Always wanted to, though."  
  
"Well, this is certainly the right place to do it. Current head of the Nest is X'tarl ne liajeb UnPlessy. All Arachniad groups, or Nests, are ruled by the oldest reproducing female. She's Nest Mother, political and military head; semi- Goddess. She never leaves the Plessy level, at the top of the Rock. Her relatives literally own and control the Rock. They moved in as soon as the miners moved out, set their webs up on the top level and have been here ever since."   
  
The elevator was empty when they reached it, and Merril punched the key for the next level up. Luke looked at the simply marked code and frowned.   
  
"If I read that right, we're going to the Mercantile level Above that is the General Accommodation Gallery. There's no mention of anything beyond that"  
"The Plessy Nest is on a private level above, With its own elevators. No-one but the Plessy goes there uninvited. No-one goes there at all if they can help it. You usually don't come back down if you do."  
  
A moment later the door opened and sound swelled around them. They stepped out into a flood of noise, a swirling mixture of color and odors, of alien and familiar shapes. A cavern half a kilometer wide was thronged with crowds, jostling and walking, arguing, calling out to buy their wares, coming into and going out of the various side caverns and smaller caves turned into a variety of businesses. Luke looked about, fascinated by the multitude of differing races, some of which held never encountered before. Everyone seemed to be armed and the noise level was incredible. With the reverberation caused by the shape of the Gallery and the various forms of music coming from bars and wine shops. scattered all through the big cave, it was chaos in motion.  
  
It was slow going in the congestion and they had moved around half way along when the crowd around them quietened suddenly and a pathway was opened to one side. Through it, shuffling and silent and exuding arrogant threat, came an Arachniad.   
  
From the end of one of its six pads to the flattened top of its rounded body it measured around one and a half meters. It looked like nothing less than a big black and red spider. Six of the powerful limbs were used for movement, the two front limbs had, over millions of years, formed into pincer-tipped tool-using arms. It wore no weapons, moved with the peculiar scuttling gait of its kind, yet it could, in a moment, increase that speed and overtake just about anything that was known to travel over ground.   
  
As it passed, Merril answered Luke's question's in a near whisper. "It doesn't run, it jumps, does these springy bounces. An Arachniad in a hurry is a fairly grotesque sight."  
  
As Luke watched it pass, it was moving at a sedate scramble, feeling no need to hurry on its home ground. Luke watched cold black eyes pass over him without consideration - he was nothing to it, another biped amongst many. Bipeds such as he had been its food for millennia. Here was a nightmare creation, a silence maker, a poison bearer...and Luke sensed the innate cruelty, the cold evil in it as it passed. This was the source of the Rock's taste of Bad.   
  
* ***  
  
Chewbacca's dislike of Asteroid belts had not diminished with time, and the fact that he was piloting the ship while Han was arguing with the Rock communications operator did not improve his temper.   
  
"Yes, I understand that. ..oh shutup Chewie, will ya! No, not you, I was talking to my co-pilot. .."   
  
Han wiped his forehead and glared at Chewbacca, who's grumbling growls decreased only slightly in volume. Despite her concern, Leia couldn't help smiling just a little, but wiped the smile   
away as Han turned towards her, almost jumping in the seat in frustration   
  
"Look, I just told ya, I've never been here before, how could I have a landing permit!"   
  
"And I just told you, Solo, you can't land without one." The operator's voice had an edge to it and its owner was obviously accustomed to dealing with annoyed spacers.   
  
"All right. . ." Leia winced at the sound of her husband's teeth grinding together. "I'll take the bait - how do I get a permit?"  
  
"Nice of you to ask. You go to Agaroo or Pesserdine and apply. After a waiting period where your credit rating and identity are checked, you get an entry permit. Maybe. Have you got that ?" The tone was laden with sarcasm.  
  
"Yeah, I got that. Listen, friend, don't bother listing me as a character reference."  
  
"Love you too, Solo. Control out." The communicator buzzed with static, and Han flicked it off. He sat back and glared out the viewport, mouthing silent curses, while Chewbacca's growls increased in volume.   
  
"All right, all right. I'll take over." Han took the controls and steered the Falcon away from the Rock and clear space the edge of the belt. He slowed the' ship to a stop and turned to Leia.   
  
"Now what?"  
  
"Highstar is definitely here?" she asked, and Han nodded.  
  
"So the Controller said. Came in just a little while ago. Trust him to have one. Here's here, and we can't get in. Not through the front door, anyway."  
  
It was problem not easily overcome. One of the Rock's strong points was its invulnerability. It wasn't possible to just land as could be done on a planet. There was one way in, and it was denied to them. As they all sat, chasing ideas to dead ends, the long range sensors began to beep quietly. Chewbacca flipped on the computers and sniffed.  
  
/ /Big freighter, Corellian bulker maybe./ /  
  
"Oh yeah?" Hand leant over Chewie's shoulder and studied the readout. "Let's see who it is." He punched up the resolution and put the slow-moving freighter on the main screen. "Don't know him, but the way he's heading straight in, he's got a permit."  
  
"Pity we can't hitch a ride," Leia said.  
  
Han began to smile, the familiar twinkle banishing his down mood. "Well. . .why don't we?"  
  
Chewie and Leia turned to him, bewildered, and the smile grew into a grin.  
  
"How about this - I know these bulk pilots, he'll slow right down to maneuver into the tunnel, slow to a crawl so as not to knock bits off his hull. He's fat-beamed and won't risk a fast entry. If we wait on the surface at the top of the entry way, we can just repell down onto his hull as he goes by. He'll never notice us and neither will the Controllers."  
  
Leia opened and closed her mouth a couple of times and, for once, Chewbacca was at an obvious loss for words.  
  
"Are you going totally - Completely - Insane!" Leia finally gasped out.  
  
"Yeah, " he grinned, nodding. "I am. Care to join me?"  
  
End this part  
  
  
  



End file.
